Cricket’s summer carnival, the second Twenty20 World Cup, is in town - but in the gloom of Lords last night, the hosts spectacularly failed to defeat the lowly Netherlands in the opening game of the tournament.

So much for a carnival against the colourful Orangemen; this ended as a drizzle-soaked circus.

Losing a one-off game in this format is one thing, losing to 500-1 outsiders at the home of cricket is quite another. Much as the Dutch deserve enormous credit for their victory and the courage they displayed in chasing their target of 163, this is a game England should never, ever have come close to losing.

This result ranks amongst the very worst suffered by any English team.

Having been given a fabulous base from which to build by Ravi Bopara (46), who continues to look in magnificent touch, and the boisterous hitting of Luke Wright (71), the makeshift middle order were stifled by some decent Dutch bowling and fielding in the last ten overs.

A total of 200 had seemed possible at halfway, but England limped to a relatively paltry 162 as Owais Shah, Robert Key, Eoin Morgan and Paul Collingwood to a man failed to hit, let alone clear, the boundary rope with any sort of regularity.

Still, in difficult light and damp conditions, England should have had enough to keep the Dutch under control - but they were undone by some strong hitting by Dee Grooth, Borren and ten Doeschate, despite professional contributions from Jimmy Anderson and Ryan Sidebottom, both of whom conceded less than a run a ball from their four-over allocations.

Perhaps most worrying of all was that England didn't handle the pressure of the situation at all well. Numerous run out chances were botched during the Dutch innings and quite why Stuart Broad didn't seem to know that a tie would have resulted in a 'Super Over' sudden-death play-off is anyone's guess.

Instead of allowing a single from the final ball and keeping his team's hopes alive, Broad went for broke - his shy at the stumps missed, whoever should have been backing up his throw was AWOL, and an overthrow decided the game.

Chaos reigned in those closing moments, and England were a distant second when it came to keeping clear heads.

Collingwood's men move on to The Oval on Sunday knowing that they will have to beat Pakistan if they are to be involved in the Super Eights. It will be a step up in class on paper, and England could well be without their star man Kevin Pietersen as he nurses his tender achilles tendon.

England are a little short on stardust when he and Andrew Flintoff are absent and so they may opt to try Essex's Graham Napier, who has fully earned a reputation as a big hitter and crowd pleaser on the county circuit.

Having provided the headline writers and tournament organisers with an astonishing result last night, England have at least put the competition firmly in the public gaze. They will have their work cut out if their interest in the competition is to extend beyond the first weekend.